Campaign of the Month:
May 2014

Ladies in Hades and the Dyval Wears Prada

Here There Be Monsters

Welcome to Calgary!

After a rather lengthy (and revealing) [[Coming Clean: Conversational Interlude #2 | discussion]] everyone came to the agreement that Trent and The Deacon would remain in the ruins while Pall Mall and James would head into Calgary to scope out the scene. They would be escorted initially by Sonja but she would return to Trent and The Deacon once they got closer to the city. When they got a feel for the area and found a “safe” place, Pall would use scrolls which Trent provided him to make a Dimensional Envelope and create a Dimensional Portal to Trent, The Deacon and Sonja which would allow them to enter the city immediately.

While waiting in the ruins The Deacon spotted a slave caravan led by Demons marching into the city. No one slave stood out to the group above any other, but The Deacon was eager to administer His Justice and free them all. Trent did not feel it was fight they could win and barely managed to talk The Deacon out of it.

Pall Mall and James made it to the outskirts of the city unmolested. They sent Sonja back to the rest of the group and continued on, eventually entering a random bar. They exchanged some gems for local currency, chatted up a cow-demon and had some rather unique drinks. Despite James having a shape-shifting amulet in his possession, he stayed in his natural form and was assumed to be the slave of Pall Mall, who fit right in with the inhuman beings and did nothing to change that perception. Before continuing on their way their cow-demon friend recommended they stay at a place called “The Valhalla.” She assured them they couldn’t miss it.

Trent, The Deacon and now Sonja were taking turns resting through the night in the upper floors of a dilapidated building when voices from outside and below woke them. Three beings were seen in the shadows skulking around, discussing their plans for finding and entering Calgary. The Deacon used his rune gun to mire them in place with a Carpet of Adhesion. Sonja proceeded to fly down to talk with them, while Trent and The Deacon took the longer way.

The mired beings were a Headhunter, a ’Borg, and a Juicer, all human-looking. Sonja floating down to them out of the sky made them believe her to be some sort of god – an assumption she did not refute. Trent and The Deacon arrived behind them and began to question them on their business. The ’Borg opened up, to the chagrin of his Headhunter friend, and informed the group they were heading to “The Valhalla” in order to participate in an arena tournament. Trent noticed the ’Borg was branded with some sort of mark, which the ’Borg told them indicated who his demon master was. Trent filed that away for later use.

The Deacon overheard Sonja being referred to as a god, and he objected, going so far as to draw his weapons against her. She declined to refute the claim, and in response grabbed The Deacon and dropped him face first into the carpet of adhesion. The Deacon used his magic gun to metamorph into a dove and fly away, perching out of the way. Trent kept watch over and chatted more with the stuck trio, even receiving an offer from the Juicer to hire him as their escort, since he no longer was comfortable escorting the other two he was with. Trent declined. When the carpet disappeared Trent watched them leave. At that point the Deacon returned, gathered up his gear which was left behind, and left the group to travel on his own.

Pall Mall and James entered the city proper and made their way to a “car/creature” dealership where Pall could sell his Fury Beetle for more demon money. He had a seemingly friendly exchange with the proprietor, and had the Valhalla recommended to them again. Pall sent James ahead to get their room, and Pall talked some more with the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper asked Pall Mall to place a bet for him on “The Sleeper” and gave Pall Mall a large chunk of change with which to do so. James, after leaving the place, used the shapeshifting amulet to shapeshift into a Wolfen and continued on to the Valhalla.

When James arrived at the Valhalla, which was at quick glance basically a Viking long hall with rooms upstairs, he made the guy behind the counter suspicious and the guy used a dragon’s eye gem to pierce James’ disguise. He then had James “escorted” to the slave pens. Once in the slave pens, James made some good observations regarding symbols or brands that everyone there seemed to have – even recognizing that the one which Solomon Cane had was on a lot of hot slave women. James tried to chat them up and when he dropped Solomon’s name, they immediately attacked him, took him down and beat him into submission. The exact reason why was never discerned, but their dislike of the man was strongly inferred.

Pall Mall found an out of the way spot to contact Trent, Sonja and The Deacon, to tell them he could bring them over now if they wanted. Trent informed Pall that The Deacon had left them and that he would wait for Pall to secure a relatively safe place, create the Dimensional Envelope, and then be brought over that way. Pall closed communications and continued on.

Pall arrived at The Valhalla, got a room, was told that his slave was in the pens and Pall basically said “okay, he’ll keep for a while” and went to his room. He made the dimensional envelope and opened a dimensional portal back to Trent and the Valkyrie, and they came through – Trent disguised as a Demon Earth Jinn, who was branded as a servant of the same demon lord as the cyborg.

Pall caught them up on events and they all left, at Trent’s insistence, in order to get James. On the way there Pall saw a one-eyed, hooded figure sitting at a table, who beckoned to him. Pall left Trent to find his way to the slave pens and met with Odin. Trent followed the signs as best he could (he doesn’t read Demogogian but Pall pointed out which symbols were for the slave pens) and made it to the pens. Trent waded in, grabbed James, asked him to “play along”, and forced him out.

Trent and James retreated to the room and the dimensional envelope where Trent used James’ amulet in order to review what James had seen and heard while wearing it. Once caught up, they left (with James staying as his normal self) to find Pall Mall and begin trying to figure out what they’d all do now. They found Pall and they all went back to the guy behind the counter to try and get some info regarding Athena, but there was none. When Pall remembered to place the bet he was asked to put down, the guy behind the counter suddenly got violent and attacked, revealing himself to be a Sowki as well. A few demon enforcers of his joined the fray and everyone fought back, viciously winning the encounter. A spell Pall cast caused both the Valkyrie and James to be “banished” from the area for a few hours along with several minor demons, so they patiently waited outside. The Sowki yielded and Trent and Pall took him into his back room for questioning.

Pall Mall used a spell of Domination to usurp the Sowki’s will and make him do and say whatever Pall Mall wished. They found out that Pall was attacked because that earlier shop owner had identified something was “not quite right” with Pall and the money Pall was given was the clue to alert others to that fact. Pall and Trent each took 1 million from the guy’s safe and Pall took a whole bunch of demon-hunting weapons from him, which he hid away for himself for later. Trent grabbed the Dragon’s Eye gem that the Sowki had used, but it didn’t work for them because it was magically bonded to the Sowki.

The group decided to check out a certain whorehouse that Pall wished to go to. At that place, Trent and James waited while Pall Mall met with a succubus whore. The proprietor offered for Trent and James to pick one of her whores, free of charge, while they waited. Trent declined, but James indicated he was looking for a woman who matched Athena’s description. The proprietor did not seem to speak James’ languages, so Trent had to translate between the two of them (and may have deliberately left some stuff out in doing so), which led to the proprietor directing James to a certain room. In the room was a Wolfen woman who then proceeded to pleasure James, and started it all off with a jar of peanut butter that she applied to him and then licked off.

Pall came down and “bought” the succubus he had visited, so now the group had a succubus with it for some reason. Both James and Pall noticed a portrait of a human man in their rooms, and although he looked somewhat familiar they couldn’t place it. Pall didn’t care, but James took the portrait and brought it back down with him to show Trent. Trent identified it as himself, but older. When Trent questioned the proprietor, she said those pictures were in every room and were there since she bought the place – they belonged to the previous owner. She suggested one of her whores who was there when she bought the place may know more, and Trent paid her the money to visit her while Pall and James waited. Trent found a confused woman in the room who couldn’t tell him much, but apparently was human, not metamorphed, and had an aura very similar to Trent’s own. She tried to get him to have sex with her but he declined and left, very confused.